Erdoğan escalates attacks on PKK

In an offensive during the last seven days, the Turkish army claims that
around 100 fighters of the PKK (Kurdistan Worker’s Party), the Kurdish
guerrilla group in Turkey, were killed and another 80 were wounded.
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s Prime Minister, used an attack on a
military convoy by the PKK in the south-east of Turkey on 17 August, in
which eight soldiers and one member of the pro-government Kurdish
militia died, to launch a huge military campaign. It included air
strikes on bases of the PKK in Northern Iraq and coordinated action with
the Iranian regime, as a reported phone call with President Ahmadinejad
indicates. The Iranian regime itself started an offensive on 16 July
against Kurdish fighters. This was reported by the Kurdistan National
Congress, who warned Turkey not to resort to a ‘Tamil solution’ of the
Kurdish question – a further slaughter of Kurdish people. There is
speculation in the Turkish media that, after Ramadan ends on 30 August,
the government could start a ground offensive in the region.

Erdoğan combined these military actions with a threat: that those not
distancing themselves from terror would have to “pay a price”. This was
more or less openly directed at the BDP (Peace and Democracy Party), a
Kurdish, left-leaning party.

The AKP (Justice and Development Party) government presented itself in
the past as searching for a peaceful and democratic solution to the
Kurdish question, even implementing some reforms, for example allowing
the use of the Kurdish language. Now, thousands of Kurdish politicians
are imprisoned by this government and the repression on Kurdish
activists, but also the left and trade unionists, is increasing.

Erdoğan is trying to use his strengthened position following his victory
in the general election in June 2011, which saw a slight increase in the
AKP’s vote from 47 to 50%. He was afterwards able to further push aside
the opposition from the ’Kemalist’ – traditional secularist – leadership
of the military. The open power struggle between different wings of the
bureaucracy of the state apparatus which kept Turkey in its grip over a
decade has now reached a qualitative change in favour of the AKP: The
old Kemalist bureaucracy in the state apparatus – for example in the
military and the courts – who tried to stand against the AKP, have
severely lost their influence and power.

Therefore, this is the first military campaign where Erdoğan cannot hide
behind a warmongering military elite with its own interests in
escalation – which was partially true in the past. In the eyes of many
Kurdish people, Erdoğan will be fully responsible now.

Refugee camp in border zone in northeastern Iraq, where Kurds have
fled offensives in Turkey and Iran

Elections in June and the prospects of the bloc for work, democracy and
freedom

The elections of June saw also an increase from 20 to 36 elected MPs
supported by the BDP and an alliance of mostly left parties around it.
To surmount the obstacle of the 10% national threshold for parties to
get MPs, these candidates stood as independents. In total this ‘bloc for
work, democracy and freedom’ got 6.6% nationally, despite the fact that
they could not stand in all constituencies. Their votes increased in the
Kurdish areas compared to 2007. The bloc allowed representatives of left
parties to stand, for example, in Istanbul and other big cities, where
the election results were also better than the average. The MPs elected
included Sırrı Süreyya Önder, a well known film director, active in the
resistance against the military dictatorship in the 1980s, Levent Tüzel,
member and ex-chair of EMEP (Labour Party), and Ertuğrul Kürkçü, one of
the leading members of the left resistance of the THKP-C (Turkish
People’s Liberation Front) in the 1970s which still has a very high
profile in Turkey today.

However, some of the elected representatives were not allowed to become
members of the parliament. Hatip Dicle, elected with 78.000 votes in
Diyarbakir, but imprisoned for his pro-Kurdish activism, was refused to
take his seat. Instead, it was given to the AKP’s candidate in his
constituency who clearly came second. Alongside Hatip, four other
elected representatives were banned. In protest, the other MPs of the
bloc for work, democracy and freedom refused to take their oath in
parliament.

Empty seats of the MPs supported by the bloc during a swearing-in
ceremony at the parliament, June 2011

After the election success of the bloc, Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned
leader of the PKK, emphasised again his repeatedly made proposal to
transform the election alliance into a new umbrella party of the BDP,
socialists, ecological activists and feminists. The election result
encouraged activists to move in this direction. It got a lot of
attention on the left and in the workers’ movement. The Turkish media
did not report much about it, but the discussions are continuing
involving EMEP (a legal party built from former Stalinists who supported
Albania and still see themselves as socialists, mainly presenting a
reformist programme; internationally linked to Day-Mer in Britain, or
DiDF – federation of Turkish workers in Germany) and SDP (Socialist
Democracy Party – also comprising former left activists, a split from
the ÖDP – Freedom and Solidarity Party) as well as the BDP.
Unfortunately, it is not a process from below involving new activists
but more a top-down approach of the different leaderships of these
groups.

Before and during the elections, Öcalan had proposed to the government
to transform the PKK into a political movement and end the armed
struggle. The PKK has been in an impasse now for many years. It is
obvious that the armed struggle will lead nowhere. Öcalan and the PKK
are not demanding an independent Kurdistan anymore, but ‘democratic
autonomy’ within the Turkish state.

But the government – while starting some negotiations with their
prisoner and state enemy number one, Öcalan – did not offer anything. In
danger of being pushed more and more aside, the PKK gave their answer in
August and re-started attacks after ending their one-sided ceasefire.
The PKK created with these attacks an opportunity for Erdogan to strike
back with bloody bombing. There are now even discussions in the
government about using special elite forces on the ground to intensify
the battle against the PKK. A harsher prison regime against Öcalan has
been imposed. As the Kurdistan National Congress reports, his lawyers
have been banned from seeing him “for arbitrary reasons” since 27 July.

A new increased wave of arrests against the BDP and Kurdish
intellectuals is foreseeable. The whole rhetoric of the government and
capitalist media points in this direction. A newspaper close to Erdoğan
called the BDP “murderers”.

So far, tensions on the ground between Turkish and Kurdish people are
not as heated as after other PKK attacks in recent years, when Turkish
nationalists stirred up groups to attack Kurdish shops and centres. But
the government and the media have re-inflamed the tensions and slanders
against the BDP to accompany the military campaign.

Prospects for a new left party

The Turkish workers’ movement has been in a process of re-awakening in
recent years, with hundreds of thousands gathering every May Day in
Istanbul’s Taksim Square, the Tekel workers’ struggle last year and
other smaller industrial battles. Given this background and the social
instability in Turkey, a new formation developing out of the bloc has a
lot of potential in offering a platform to a layer of new socialist,
workplace and trade union activists.

At the same time, because of its mainly Kurdish nationalist outlook
despite its left positioning, the BDP (and its forbidden predecessors)
have limited appeal for Turkish workers. The BDP never managed to become
a real Turkey-wide party.

Rally of the bloc in the election campaign

To cut across the demagogy of the nationalists, from the neo-fascist MHP
(Nationalist Movement Party) to the Kemalist CHP (Republican People’s
Party) and the governing AKP (the other three parties in the
parliament), a new left party has to base itself on the joint struggle
of the working class against all oppression and for full democratic
rights, including trade union rights, the right to strike and the rights
of Kurdish people to decide their autonomy or even independence, if they
wish.

On a capitalist basis there is no way out for the development of the
economy in the Kurdish areas, nor is there a prospect for a stable
continuation of the boom in the Turkish economy. In contrast, it has a
lot of features in common with the Southern European states before the
last crisis hit them (see box on Turkish economy). The precarious,
low-paid jobs are increasing and the boom of recent years has not
reached wider parts of the working class. The credit-card bubble helped
working-class people to sustain their living standards. This will strike
back to hit them hard.

A newly-formed left formation could develop roots also in the Turkish
working class. Unfortunately, the forces allied to the bloc for work,
democracy and freedom limit themselves to small reformist demands and do
not link the struggle for immediate improvements to the fight for a
socialist solution to poverty and unemployment in Turkey and Kurdistan.
This will put the development of this new party under question.

However, a platform to bring workers, young people and activists of
social movements together, to discuss and develop a programme and a
joint fightback against the AKP government and the attacks of the
capitalists and imperialism, is urgently needed. A new umbrella party
could be a step forward in this direction.

Marxist forces are needed to ensure that those activists from
workplaces, trade unions and social movements as well as Kurdish
activists, who are looking in the direction of this new emerging
umbrella party, will find more than the leaderships of the parties
involved are prepared to offer. A revolutionary socialist alternative is
necessary to build a new mass workers’ party, armed with a programme to
overcome the AKP government, the oppression of Kurdish people,
capitalism and imperialism.

Threat of economic decline

All this has happened in a still favourable economic situation for
the capitalists.

In the first quarter of 2011, Turkey saw economic growth of 11% -
more than even China. But in August, the US bank Morgan Stanley
lowered their expectations for 2012 from 4.5% to 3.5% growth. The
growth is based on a huge current account deficit which the IMF
expects to be around 10.5% this year.

‘Hot money’ is pouring into Turkey as it is seen as a profitable
place to invest. But this can not only stop but completely change its
direction and lead to an outflow of capital.

The Turkish Lira has lost 23% of its value in relation to the Euro
since the beginning of the year; the index of the Istanbul stock
exchange has lost 21% of its value so far in 2011.

This indicates developments similar to the pre-crisis situation in
Southern Europe.

Regional developments are a further destabilising factor. Economic
relations with Syria in the last period rose from €700 million to €3
billion. But since the Syrian regime launched its civil war against
the protest movement and the number of people crossing the border to
escape repression increased significantly, trade and investment have
been seriously hit.

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